Gold Coast housing crisis: change will ‘rip the guts out’ of Coast neighbourhoods
A change to housing approvals will “rip the guts out” of Gold Coast suburbs and open the door to bigger buildings which city leaders will be unable to stop. FIND OUT WHY
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The Gold Coast City Council will be stripped of powers to assess, approve or reject contentious housing development applications in a move criticised as “policy on the run”.
Changes to the Planning Act 2016 and Planning Regulations 2017 will give developers the ability to lodge plans for houses which don’t comply with height, setbacks or density and leave councillors with just 10 days to provide limited input.
City leaders and industry figures have sounded the alarm about the State Government move, warning it will “rip the guts out of community-led planning” on the Gold Coast and statewide.
City planning boss Cr Cameron Caldwell said there was “no science” for the “policy on the run” - and it would struggle to “deliver more housing supply”.
“The state government has embarked on an untested and risky strategy which removes council development assessments of all detached dwellings,” he said.
“We are concerned of the unintended consequences in suburban Gold Coast where a detailed assessment of non-City Plan compliant dwellings will now not occur.
“More concerning is neighbouring properties are now cut out of the process, meaning no visibility about what might happen in your backyard.”
Other councillors are critical too. Cr Hermann Vorster warns there will be a “suburban revolt” against the government.
“The state’s already broken faith with the Gold Coast and trashed our (City Plan) amendment package. This will be rubbing salt into the wounds of communities like Varsity Lakes, Palm Beach and Burleigh where decisions are a core business for concerned residents.”
Under the changes, dwellings will be reclassified from an “assessable development” to “building works”, meaning they would be rubber-stamped almost immediately and councils would no longer have the ability to assess them via committee and council process.
The assessment window will be cut from 42 to 10 business days. City leaders were briefed on the changes recently before they come into effect later this year.
Under the new rules, controversial projects, including some proposed mega mansions on Hedges Ave at Mermaid Beach would all have been greenlit despite community concern.
A full council meeting in April rejected a proposed three-storey duplex planned for a site in Paradise Point’s Lakefield Crescent. It was opposed by the community.
The project, with a petition against it signed by 450 people and 79 submissions against, would have been approved under the new regulations.
Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) Gold Coast chairman Andrew Henderson said he was concerned by long-term impacts.
“Councils exist because they are on the ground in the local area. This would seem to run roughshod over them,” he said.
“This would have a significant impact on the residential areas of the Gold Coast because councils are supposed to have an overview of what is happening there and give people a level of coverage or protection against what could be built on a particular site.
“Resident will not know what can be put in next to them when they buy which could mean people will lose their privacy if a larger building is approved and built.”
A Department of State Development spokesperson said to help house affordability and supply challenges, the state amended the planning framework, removing the need for local government development approvals for dwelling houses where proposed outside of a medium or high density residential zone and meeting certain requirements such as not being subject to other considerations such as local heritage or natural hazards.
The amendments don’t remove the need for other approvals such as building approvals
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